Rampur CRPF terror attack case on fast track

By Darshan Desai Lucknow, July 28 (IANS) The attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur town on New Year day this year in which eight people were killed is among the few terror cases claimed to be solved and fast-tracked to a court trial. The Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Uttar Pradesh Police has wrapped up the probe in the case and filed a charge sheet. The case has also been committed to the sessions court in Rampur and its next hearing is marked for Aug 2.

Seven people were arrested for the attack on the CRPF camp. The alleged terrorists armed with AK 47 rifles and grenades had attacked a sentry post located along a railway track within a CRPF recruitment centre around 2.30 a.m. on Jan 1 and killed four paramilitary personnel and a rickshaw puller.

In a second attack, the terrorists hurled a grenade at the main gate besides firing indiscriminately, but CRPF jawans hit back at the terrorists, forcing them to flee.

One of the terrorists managed to enter the administrative block of the recruitment centre and killed three unarmed CRPF jawans. He managed to escape though he was fired upon by the security forces. Five security men were also injured in the gunfire.

According to Mohammad Shoaib, advocate for four of the accused, the police charge sheet in the incident rests largely on confessional statements made by his clients before the police.

Shoaib, who was last month attacked by fellow lawyers for advocating the case of alleged terrorists, has moved an application in the Rampur court seeking discharge of his clients since “confessions before the police has no evidential value”.

He told IANS that in the case of Mohammad Kausar Farooqui, one of the accused, the police “does not even have a confessional statement”.

Official sources in the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad declined to comment on the lawyer’s allegations, stating that the court was seized of the case and would frame the charges.